Weddings, Parties, Anything return

By Jo Roberts

April 16, 2008 — 10.00am

If you got through the 1990s in Melbourne without (a) losing a watch or at least one shoe; (b) getting your feet stomped on and not caring; (c) getting soaked in equal parts sweat, beer and cider and still not caring (even if none of it was yours); or (d) singing and swaying with 600 or so of your new best friends, then chances are you never went to a Weddings, Parties, Anything Christmas show.

From around 1989 to 1998, the Central Club Hotel in Richmond played host to an annual ritual that became a Melbourne legend, not done before, and not seen since. Starting off with just one show in 1989, the Weddoes, as they were fondly called, brought their heady brew of folk, country, rock and punk to the pub each December. By 1998 - the band's final year - the Christmas shows had become a seven-night stand leading up to Christmas Eve, and the Central Club had become a veritable tabernacle.

From tonight, down at the other end of Swan Street, many Weddoes fans will be revisiting that time, when the band plays its first of five consecutive shows at Richmond's Corner Hotel as part of its 10th anniversary reunion tour. And as a nod to the shows that were once a Melbourne institution, they've called the gigs "Christmas in April".

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Thoughts of a reunion tour began when WPA reformed for the Sacred Heart Community Cup charity football match in July 2005, and the following year in November, for a show at the Queenscliff Music Festival.

"It became obvious to us at Queenscliff that a lot of people never saw the band while we were going," says the band's bear-like leader and singer-songwriter, Mick Thomas, who founded the band in 1984 with accordion player Mark "Wally" Wallace.

"And more than any time since the band broke up, we were friends. I guess we just had to wait until the time felt right. We were careful not to jump into the first thing that was offered, and believe me, we've been offered stuff."

The response to the reunion tour, which began in March with a couple of out-of-town warm-up shows before shows at major festivals at Byron Bay and Port Fairy, has been "beyond our expectations, both in terms of numbers and the feeling of them", Thomas says. "It's pure nostalgia, not just on an artistic level, but on a personal level. It's not just 'Oh, I used to love that album, I used to love that band', it's real arms-around-your-mates kind of thing."

Which is how the live shows always were. One of Australia's last great pub-rock bands of the '90s, the Weddoes became renowned for their sweaty, singalong live shows, and their songs of Australian people: their loves, battles and joys. Fans would have their coins ready to piff at the poor band as they sang the chorus of Ticket in Tatts, while shielding their eyes: "Well, I'm 10 cents short of a dollar (piff)/But I feel like a man with a ticket in Tatts." They'd leap about in delirium to Under the Clocks, about meeting under the Flinders Street Station clocks; about buying fish and chips in Chapel Street and, of course, going to the footy (Thomas is a diehard Saints man).

The title of the Weddings' 1999 posthumous live album, They Were Better Live, had become a catchcry for the band whose record sales, for some reason, never matched their live success. Thomas remains good-naturedly circumspect about it, admittedly through some tongue-biting as he watches renewed interest in his old band overshadowing that of his post-Weddoes outfit, the Sure Thing. He estimates that of the audiences coming to see the Weddings on this tour, about 20% of them go to Sure Thing shows. "I look at the other 80% of them and I think, 'Where have you been, you bastards?'," he says with a wry laugh.

But while the songs have remained the same, the Weddoes audience has changed. The diehards are buoyed by the new guard, first sighted at that Queenscliff show. "The two gigs we did at Port Fairy, to 3000-to-4000 people, the front rows were all kids," Thomas says. "They've basically got their parents' or brothers and sisters' records, and the general consensus (from them) was 'Thanks for doing this, because I never got to see you'. It's been really enjoyable."

And the Weddoes themselves have changed. Gone are the days when the band's post-show party would run well into the next day.

This band is a drier, "far fitter" version of the one that finished up in 1998, says Thomas, to the point that the band's once-notoriously hard-drinking bass player, Stephen "Irish" O'Prey, is not only on the wagon, but also designated driver and, when required, babysitter.

"The funniest thing is Irish driving everyone home, Irish driving the van. He hasn't had a drink for three months," says Thomas. "Even at Port Fairy, . . . he was babysitting Wally and Michael's (drummer Michael Barclay's) kids so they could go out after the show at night."

So the Weddoes are back, if only for a short time. And in true Melbourne fashion, they've even brought footy scarves. The band's long-time merchandise man, Chelsea Dave, has produced a special range of WPA footy scarves for the tour, covering the colours of every AFL club - except one.

"Dave just refused to do Hawthorn," laughs Thomas. "He says the colours are revolting."

Weddings, Parties Anything are at the Corner Hotel, Richmond, from tonight until Saturday. Doors open 8.30pm, and Sunday (family friendly, all ages) from 3.30pm, with support from Ron Hawkins. Book on 9427 9188 or at www.cornerhotel.com. And don't wear your good shoes.